10 Life Changing Books To Give This Christmas

It’s tough to find good Christmas gifts for some people. That’s because once you get to a certain age, if you don’t have fancy taste and have made a certain amount of money, you’ve probably already bought or been given most of the things you want. But, no matter how many things you may have, a book that expands your life is still a welcome addition. After having read thousands of books in my life, here are some that I’d particularly recommend:

2) How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: Know someone who’s not so good with people? Well, this is THE book to give him. That’s not to say it will teach you everything you need to know about interacting with other human beings, but it can take someone from no people skills to significantly better to average with people just by applying Carnegie’s wisdom.

3) Why Men Are the Way They Are By Warren Farrell: Your behavior is shaped by cultural forces that most people don’t even realize exist. Everything from movies, to magazines, to sports teaches men and women to behave in a certain way to get each other’s attention. Often, we don’t even realize this is happening. That’s why this book is so useful: It reveals the underlying societal forces that deeply impact the way we behave.

5) Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis: Even though the book bogs down in the final third when Lewis gets into theology, this still may be the single best book on Christianity that I’ve ever read. If you know a Christian who wants to get deeper into his faith, he couldn’t do much better than this book.

8) Winning Through Intimidation By Robert Ringer: This book would more aptly be titled “How To Avoid Being Intimidated,” but that wouldn’t be as catchy. The theme of the book is that people are often manipulated and intimidated in subtle ways. Once you identify what’s happening, you’ll get a much better understanding of how the world works and how to make your own life easier to manage.

10) Basic Economics By Thomas Sowell: There are two problems that prevent most people from truly understanding economics. #1) It’s not intuitive. You’ll never get a proper handle on economics just by using common sense; you need some expert instruction as well. The problem with getting that instruction is #2) Economics tends to be boring. In Thomas Sowell, you have a master instructor who can explain the subject matter in a way that makes sense without putting you to sleep. If you could only read one book on economics, I’d say it should be this one.